Good morning, I hope you’re able to power your way through today en route to Super Bowl Sunday. Here are the five USC, Los Angeles and California stories you need to know for today.
1.
Huntington Beach’s new conservative city council banned the rainbow Pride flag from flying on city property, restricting permissible flags to those representing the government and military. The decision was in sharp contrast to a unanimous council vote two years ago that called for the flag to fly for six weeks every spring.
Shipping companies agreed to pay $45 million to thousands of Southern California fishermen, tour companies and property owners after a pipeline near Huntington Beach ruptured in 2021, spilling 25,000 gallons of crude into the ocean.
Experts say many California buildings share a common building flaw with Turkish and Syrian structures that partially contributed to the mass damage in the wake of the devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake: non-ductile concrete, which has inadequate steel reinforcing bars making the material far too brittle to withstand quakes.
A grassroots group of students and faculty is calling for the university to reinstate Dr. Arameh Anvarizadeh as director of admissions at the USC Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, contending the university hasn’t been transparent about the reasons for her removal. Anvarizadeh was demoted while on medical leave after maternity leave in June.
An estimated 36.3 million trees died in California last year — a jump from 9.5 million in 2021 — according to a report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service. The report pointed to prolonged drought, overgrowth, insect outbreaks and disease as the likely culprits.
